How can the ‘hungry author' mindset help you become more of a successful author? Why do you need to shift your point of view to that of the reader so your book resonates with them? What are some of the key aspects of writing and marketing non-fiction books? Ariel Curry gives her tips in this episode.

In the intro, tackling imposter syndrome [Ink in Your Veins];
Novel Study: Decoding the Secrets and Structures of Contemporary Fiction by Kristen Tate; StoryBundle for Writers; Publishing for Profit conference from ALLi; Tap to Pay on mobile for live events [Zettle/PayPal]; Blood Vintage and Discovery Writing webinar; I'm on The Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast, and The Nightmare Engine Podcast.

Plus, Leveraging AI for book covers and ads [Brave New Bookshelf]; More controls coming for Google NotebookLM [VentureBeat]; Meta’s new generative video model, Movie Gen.

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Today’s show is sponsored by FindawayVoices by Spotify, the platform for independent authors who want to unlock the world’s largest audiobook platforms. Take your audiobook everywhere to earn everywhere with Findaway Voices by Spotify. Go to findawayvoices.com/penn to publish your next audiobook project.

This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn 

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Ariel Curry is a writer, editor and book coach, and the co-author of Hungry Authors: The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing, and Publishing a Nonfiction Book.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Show Notes

• What is a hungry author?





• The mindset needed for a long-term author career





• Subgenres of nonfiction and how to find and market to their audiences





• Key elements of a book map





• Writing with a reader-focused mindset





• Top reasons why editors and agents reject books





• The importance of platform for nonfiction authors





• Leveraging podcasts for marketing nonfiction books

You can find Ariel at HungryAuthors.com

Transcript of Interview with Ariel Curry

Joanna: Ariel Curry is a writer, editor and book coach, and the co-author of Hungry Authors: The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing, and Publishing a Nonfiction Book. So welcome to the show, Ariel.

Ariel: Thank you so much for having me, Joanna. I'm so happy to be here.

Joanna: Great. Well, first up—

Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and the publishing industry.

Ariel: Sure. Well, like many people in the publishing industry, I was an English major who didn't really know what she wanted to do. I thought I might do teaching. I tried that for a little bit. That did not go well.

So I thought, you know what, why not just shoot for the stars? I've always loved books, and so I thought, well, it never hurts to apply to publishing internships. So I did that. I got an internship in London at Anthem Press, which is a little bit more of an academic publisher. That eventually led to a role as an editorial assistant at Corwin Press in California. Then from there, I moved up the ladder to acquisitions editor.

Then I took a little bit of a break from the traditional publishing corporate world for a few years. I was freelancing, I was doing collaborations, and I was doing developmental editing.

Then just recently, I decided to rejoin the corporate publishing industry, and I took a role as an acquisitions editor at Sourcebooks. So that's where I am currently, and I specialize in nonfiction.

Joanna: What is it like being on the other side of the fence as an author?

Ariel: It is a lot of fun. The thing that I always remind authors of is it's a business. So my job there is to be an investor in great ideas, and great writers, and great writing. I think that's the part that a lot of people don't necessarily understand.

Sometimes it's a little sad because it seems to take some of the romance and the feelings of creativity out of it, I think, but at the end of the day, everyone in the publishing industry just truly loves books. So we totally get the romance and the special feelings that come with pouring everything that you have into a book.

Someone has to be the person to make it successful on a broad scale. That's what people in the publishing industry are here to do is to take the very, very, very best of writers and writing and help to blast that, hopefully as to as wide an audience as possible. That's what we're all here to do.

Sometimes it takes a little bit of the romance away, but honestly, I absolutely love what I do. I love working in the corporate publishing sphere, so I don't see that going away anytime soon.

Joanna: That's great. Well, let's get into the book because I think it is good to know of your background, too. For nonfiction authors, in particular, is what we're really talking about today. Also, to know the mindset of an acquisitions editor is great. So getting into the book—

What is your definition of a ‘hungry author,' and why is mindset so important?

Ariel: Yes, so here's our official definition of a hungry author.

We say, “A hungry author is a writer who is determined to succeed. They want to and will be published. They take feedback well and don't shy away from the hard work. You will find their butts in the chairs and fingers on the keyboard. They believe in their ideas and know they will impact others. “

So we wanted to write this book, and we called it Hungry Authors because my co-author, Liz Morrow, and I—she is a full time collaborator, she's a ghost writer, and obviously I work in acquisitions.

We just saw every single day that authors, even with small to no platform—which is the thing that everyone says you have to have but —

Authors with little to no platforms still can, and do all the time, reach the pinnacles of publishing success.

Like if you look at the New York Times Bestseller list, you will often find authors that you cannot find on social media. We were like, what is it about those people? How do they break the code or go against the grain of all of this advice that we typically hear that, “Oh, you have to…”

Especially for nonfiction, “You've got to have a great platform. You've got to be a celebrity.” There's all of these myths around what you have to be or have to have to make it and to succeed as a traditionally published author. We know from both of our experience that that's not necessarily true.

As she and I both started working with more clients who were doing that, who were getting traditional book